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How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

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Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#71

Post by AnimalMuppet »

MegaButts wrote: post #62
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their valuation is based on spirituality ? Are they a business, or a church? I mean, they can actually be more valuable than other such companies if they get the ambience right. Maybe that's what he meant. But if they're referring to the ambience as "spirituality", I cannot take them seriously. [Edit: And if by "spirituality" they mean something besides ambience, I still cannot take them seriously.] If I had more fai…

> If I had more faith in the market's rationality, I would short them as soon as they IPO... Total tangent, but how much of the stock market do you think is fair? By fair I mean abiding by SEC regulations (and other obvious laws, such as regular fraud), versus unfair where people are using insider trading, trying to influence a short, or even have some ulterior motive perhaps related to politics? Now I hope someone m…

I said that the market might be irrational, not that it might be unfair.

"Irrational" is values that are not based on a reasonable interpretation of the company's financial state and reasonably forseeable future. This is what I think is meant by the saying "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

"Unfair" means corrupt, rigged, or otherwise dishonest. I wasn't suggesting that. But like you, I'd love to see the results if someone can measure it...

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#72

Post by creaghpatr »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #51
mdorazio wrote: post #2

Cynical answer: he convinced VCs that his particular brand of shared office space was better than everyone else's, actual revenue be damned, and they believed him . That's it. Straight from the article: "Neumann declared that WeWork’s “valuation and size today are much more based on our energy and spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.”"

Their valuation is based on spirituality ? Are they a business, or a church? I mean, they can actually be more valuable than other such companies if they get the ambience right. Maybe that's what he meant. But if they're referring to the ambience as "spirituality", I cannot take them seriously. [Edit: And if by "spirituality" they mean something besides ambience, I still cannot take them seriously.] If I had more fai…

>But if they're referring to the ambience as "spirituality", I cannot take them seriously.

I dunno, the Catholic church is doing just fine in terms of revenues and real estate assets, and that's just one example. Then again, religious organizations get preferable tax treatment...maybe WeWork will eventually pivot to religion down the road.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#73

Post by SystemOut »

secabeen wrote: post #31
netaustin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The"real business" of WeWork et al seems to be selling an entrepreneurial vibe to big companies. Lots of folks in my distributed company work at WeWorks around the country, and most of their neighbors work for big companies. One of my colleagues is almost fully surrounded by a Dish Network call center. WeWork will even custom build for big customers — in fact, their Enterprise landing page is a good an index to their…

The question is, why would a F500 company rent space from WeWork at a double-digit markup when they can do it themselves? This is not super hard or special stuff, and F500 companies need to do it enough that they can maintain the expertise. If the answer is "wework allows us to be elastic with real estate as our needs shift", then WeWork will be in for a lot of hurt at the next recession. If the answer is "we are usi…

So I'm not at a fortune 500 (fortune 1000 yeah) but we are expanding into a new city and waiting until our office population is enough to move into a full time space. I can not wait for that since we've completely outgrown their largest private office space and are spilling into random other offices here but it took a while to find the space we wanted and could grow into and do the build out. Flexport did that as well here in the city and moved into their own digs recently.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#74

Post by sharadov »

weworkfromhome wrote: post #52
sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

This suggestion is made every time there's a thread about WeWork and it's just not viable. There are startups in this space already and the reality is always borne out: it's simply not worthwhile to rent out space in your home to an individual. You can get a monthly membership to WeWork for Every one of the startups in this space either disappears, or pivots their focus to larger spaces designed for meetings, events…

Btw, when I was in LA looked at the closest Wework in Hollywood, and the parking was about $10/day. Now you are paying about $600/month.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#75

Post by sharadov »

pawelk wrote: post #49
sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

Name it AirB2B and go get your initial founding round!

Terrific name!

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#76

Post by jeremyjh »

sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

That works great for apartments zoned as commercial or mixed-use. I don't think that is common.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#77

Post by sharadov »

cutenewt wrote: post #19
sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

How much would you be willing to rent "a desk" each month?

I think $100 is a sweet spot.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#78

Post by sharadov »

dpau wrote: post #34
sharadov wrote: post #15

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

mind blown. although i think you should focus on car garages and backyard sheds for that authentic start-up experience. for extra, clients can have their garage pre stocked with technical-looking equipment and stray wires hanging everywhere.

I thought at some point why not convert the garage, that way they're not bothering me. Would have cost me 10K tops to put an AC, nice flooring in the garage.

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#79

Post by chaostheory »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #51
mdorazio wrote: post #2

Cynical answer: he convinced VCs that his particular brand of shared office space was better than everyone else's, actual revenue be damned, and they believed him . That's it. Straight from the article: "Neumann declared that WeWork’s “valuation and size today are much more based on our energy and spirituality than it is on a multiple of revenue.”"

Their valuation is based on spirituality ? Are they a business, or a church? I mean, they can actually be more valuable than other such companies if they get the ambience right. Maybe that's what he meant. But if they're referring to the ambience as "spirituality", I cannot take them seriously. [Edit: And if by "spirituality" they mean something besides ambience, I still cannot take them seriously.] If I had more fai…

> Their valuation is based on spirituality? Are they a business, or a church?

Maybe their investors saw value in their company culture?

"The Best Startups Work a Lot Like Cults" -- Peter Thiel

Re: How Did WeWork’s Adam Neumann Build a $47B Company?

#80

Post by listenandlearn »

It seems like these companies are fully over valued so now they need to come up with shit to push down people’s throats for the IPOs so the investors can get out at a profit.

This is what happens when VCs keep funding these loses for a decade. We saw the same thing with Uber, pushing Uber eats as if it’s going to take over all food, meanwhile there has been like 3-5 startups already doing that at a very easy to value valuation.

Anyway, I’m not buying.

Edit: I’m referencing the following from the article

>>”He is known for making bombastic pronouncements, like this one at an all-company event last year: “There are 150 million orphans in the world. We want to solve this problem and give them a new family: the WeWork family.” In L.A., Neumann told his employees that the newly formed We Company would now have three prongs — WeWork, WeLive, and WeGrow — with a single, grandiose mission: “to elevate the world’s consciousness.””

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